Jaydev Unadkat's resilience was on display in the second Test against Bangladesh on Thursday (December 22) as he returned to cricket after 12 long years in the longest format of the game. Unadkat made his Test debut for India back in 2010 against South Africa but remained wicketless back then. Cut to 2022, he was given an opportunity to shine and guess what he shone with flying colours as he pocketed his maiden Test wicket after a waiting for more than a decade.
Unadkat returned with an impressive spell of 2/50 in a spell of 16 overs. The 31-year-old star pacer was not in the squad for the Bangladesh tour earlier but was added as injury replacement. Unadkat got the big wicket of Chattogram Test centurion Zakir Hasan before coming around the wicket to force an edge off senior batter Mushfiqur Rahim.
Meanwhile, the legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar lauded Unadkat's resilience and was effusive in his praise for the star India pacer.
"What a terrific comeback by Jaydev Unadkat. He looked the most threatening of the bowlers. He looked like getting a wicket of every delivery he bowled. So, he was the one who opened the door for India and then Ashwin and Umesh got the wickets," Gavaskar told Sony Sports.
"First and foremost, to harbor the ambition to keep playing cricket is a tribute to him. He has been picking wickets in the last 5-6 seasons and he was never even in contention, nobody was even talking about him playing a Test match for India. He believed in himself. You have to pay tribute to the belief he has in himself. He was just trying to soak in the feeling," further added.
Unadkat has been one of the leading wicket-takers in domestic cricket, having picked up more than 350 wickets in 93 matches. He also led Saurashtra to their maiden Ranji Trophy title in 2019-20.
"And his pace was impressive as well. He is not express, he is not going to bowl at 150s but he was bowling consistently in the mid 130s, using the height. What he has done today, bowling on this kind of surface, he has given India an extra option, an extra dimension - a left-arm new-ball bowler for the future series," Gavaskar concluded
Talking about the Day 1's play, Bangladesh captian Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and opted to bat first but the decision did not turn out as expected. Mominul Haque was the only batter who endured Indian bowlers for long and scored a half-century as they managed to post 227 from 73.5 overs. In reply, Indian openers scored 19 runs from eight overs as bad light stopped play at Sher-e Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka.
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